Hope
by Cole224
Summary: Inspired by the Smallville episode, Lexmas. After a vivid dream, Max realizes that she shouldn’t fight who she is but that some other things are worth fighting for, no matter what. ML. oneshot and kinda sappy.


This is set during Hello, Goodbye before Max tells Logan she and Alec are together. This is really inspired from the Smallville episode, Lexmas.

Don't own anything.

* * *

Max left Alec to sleep on the couch and went straight back to her room, laying down. She hadn't meant to reveal all that to him, but she had to admit she did feel slightly better. At least now that she had been able to tell _someone _about Ben.

She still didn't feel any better about the Logan situation though. She wasn't sure what to do about it. The thought of never seeing him again…she couldn't risk hurting him again though. He could have died, would have if Joshua hadn't been there.

Staring up at the ceiling, she thought about her non relationship with Logan. Sometimes, she literally ached for him. It wasn't fair. Everything that had happened, none of it was.

She just wished…she wished that she was a normal girl. That there was no such thing as Manticore. All it did was screw up their lives, force them apart again and again.

Closing her eyes, she fought down more tears as she remembered the way that Logan had looked in that hospital bed, remembered that she was the one who put him there. Everything always started with Manticore and she hated them all the more for it, and wished even more fiercely that they didn't exist.

* * *

"Max?" She rolled over, ignoring the voice. "Max, come on. We've got to go." Someone prodded her shoulder, and Max frowned into her pillow. The only person there had been Alec, but that definitely wasn't Alec's voice. Lifting her head, Max looked up and met Logan's eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She asked incredulously, rolling over to sit up. He frowned at her.

"What?" He started away. "You'd better get up. We're going to be late." For the first time, Max noticed something odd about the room she was in. This wasn't her apartment. In fact the bedroom she was in was much bigger than hers. Standing up, Max looked around, a little bewildered.

She walked out of the room and stared at the large living room. No stained walls. No tiny couch with Alec sleeping on it, and she was pretty sure that she could see a large kitchen in the next room over.

"You okay?" Max spun to face Logan.

"Logan, what's goin' on? How did we get here?" Logan frowned.

"What do you mean?" Max stared at him. _It's a dream, _she thought after a moment. It had to be. When Logan walked over to and reached out, Max stepped back out of habit, leftover fear from what had happened at Crash earlier still lingering. Logan's frown deepened.

"Max, what's the matter with you?" Max, her eyes wide, stepped towards him. Reaching out, she took his hand in hers, and stared up at him when he only frowned at her, but didn't drop to the floor.

"Max-" She cut him off by reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck, bringing him down to her level to kiss him. Logan wrapped his arms around her back. She smiled when she pulled back finally.

"What's going on with you today?" She just smiled, running a hand down the side of his face.

"I've wanted to do that for a while." She whispered. Ifthis was a dream, it was sure vivid, she thought. Something else caught her eye as well. She lifted her hand from his cheek, staring at the ring around her finger.

__

Okay, this has to be a dream.

There was no way that her life could ever get this good. Not to mention the fact that she really couldn't get married. She didn't even have a last name, at least not one she hadn't made up for her job application. 

"We've got to go." Logan said, reluctantly releasing her. "You know that Haley will kill us if we're late." Max frowned slightly but nodded, deciding to go along with it for as long as it lasted. She couldn't help but to pull him down for another kiss, though. She had almost forgotten what it was like to kiss Logan.

When she pulled back a little, she rested her head on his chest, content for the moment with his arms around her and hers around him. It had been so long.

"Max-"

"I know." She said softly. "We can be a few minutes late, can't we?" After a minute, she couldn't help but to ask. "Logan, what about Manticore?"

"What?" Confusion was heavy in his voice. She smiled wider. It was the confirmation she needed, even if she could already tell that she wasn't what she had been when she went to bed.

"Max, are you sure you're alright?" Max sighed into his chest.

"I'm perfect."

* * *

Max walked into the building beside Logan, looking around. Max instantly recognized some of the people in the room. She spotted Cindy and Sketchy talking to the side, grinned when OC smacked him upside the head.

"Well, some things don't change." She said quietly.

"Max, Logan!" A girl Max didn't recognize called, walking over to them. She was a pretty girl with auburn hair.

"Hey, Haley." Logan said, smiling at her. She hugged them both. "Where's Alec?" Max looked up at him, then back at the girl, who smiled and rolled her eyes.

"He's around here somewhere. You know." Max touched Logan's arm, and pointed off to the side, towards OC.

"I'll be back in a sec." He nodded. She started over but somebody ran into her.

"Alec." She said when she realized who it was.

"Hey, Maxie." He said, turning his gaze on her. She rolled her eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you, don't-"

"'Call me that' I know." He said. His smile stayed in place, though. Max stared up at him, and realized that she had rarely, if ever, seen him smile like that. Not a real, guanine smile anyway. When she met his eyes, she was shocked to find that it reached them as well, and that the darkness and pain she had seen in his eyes on various occasions wasn't there. Even more of a surprise, he leaned forward and hugged her.

"Thanks for coming, Maxie." She smiled as she pulled back, not even reprimanding him for the nickname. "I know you hated the thought of being a bride's maid." Max pulled back, staring up at him in shock.

"You're getting married." She said incredulously.

"Yeah." He frowned at her. "You alright?" She nodded.

"I'm…happy for you, Alec." He gave her a half smile.

"Thanks." Patting her on the shoulder, he started off. She watched him as he went over to Haley and she walked over to lean against the wall.

This dream was getting more and more strange. Alec was getting married, and to a normal girl from what she could tell. Then again, he was normal here as well. No Manticore baggage weighing him down.

Her gaze shifted to Logan, and she wished that she could stay here forever for a moment. Her friends were happy, she was happy. The virus was gone, her and Logan were together.

* * *

"Hey, you." Logan found her a little bit later.

"Hey." Max smiled at him.

"Ready to head out?" She nodded, slipping her arm around him.

"Sure."

* * *

"Logan." Max grinned at him as he spun her to face him. They had been walking home. Home, which was apparently a new apartment of Logan's. He grinned at her and dipped down to kiss her softly. Max hooked her hands around his neck.

She opened her mouth to say the words that she could never seam to bring herself to say before, but was interrupted before she could by the distinct sound of a gun.

"Don't move." A voice said, and Max caught a glimpse of a man behind Logan. "You know what I want." He said. Max was about to take the guy down, but realized a second later that she couldn't. She wasn't a transgenic anymore. She couldn't take down a guy twice her size, and holding a gun.

"Oh, no." The guy said. "Keep your hands where they are, pal. I think it'd be better if your girl here got it." Max met Logan's eyes, saw the look in them.

"No." She whispered, as she went into his pocket to get his wallet, and could tell when she pulled it out that the man was going to be disappointed. Logan seemed to know it too, because he spun a second later, deflecting the gun but not enough and Max felt the all too familiar sensation of a bullet to the stomach.

It was over in seconds. Two more shots and the guy was running, and Logan was lying on the ground with a hole in his chest. Max fell to her knees and crawled over to him.

"Logan." She grasped his hand. His breathing was labored and he coughed, bringing up blood. Max was feeling a little lightheaded herself. "I love you." She whispered the words before her world went black.

* * *

Max woke up with a start, sitting up straight in bed, and looked around a little wildly. She was back, back in her apartment, in her room. Getting up, she went to her door and cracked it open. She could just make out Alec's form, still asleep on her couch.

Closing her door, Max sat on her bed and pulled her knees up. It _was _a dream. It had been so real. She could still feel his arms around her; still feel the pain of the bullet.

Max closed her eyes, trying to get the images of a dying Logan out of her mind. She was never more grateful for her transgenic heritage than she was now, grateful that if something like that ever really happened then she would have been able to stop it.

Max's eyes snapped open at the realization. She had always cursed her skills, always wanted to be the normal girl, and cursed Manticore because of the virus. She realized, though, that she was ignoring things as well.

The first year she had spent with Logan, she had felt so guilty for him ending up in a wheelchair, and she guessed she still did, but the truth was that she had saved his life when his hospital room had been blown up not too long after that.

When she thought back to all the trouble that Logan had gotten himself into because of Eyes Only, the truth hit her. She would have _never _been able to help him, protect him, if she had been a normal girl.

* * *

"Or, you know, maybe its cause I'm such a pain in the ass sometimes." Max grinned at Alec, shaking her head. He pulled his arm away and started to turn around.

"Alec?" He turned to her, raising an eyebrow. She hesitated, not sure what to say. "Thanks…" She finally settled on. "For, you know, listening."

"No problem." He said, giving her a strange look.

"And…you know. If you ever want to…talk or something…" She trailed off, shrugging.

"Okay." He said, still frowning slightly at her before starting away.

"Be careful!"

"Always." He waved over his shoulder. She smiled slightly at his retreating back before turning to go back inside. She needed to talk to Logan.

* * *

"It was just a dream." Max told herself, making her way up to Logan's apartment building. "You're gonna get him killed."

"Sorry." A girl mumbled when she bumped into Max's shoulder on her way out. Max nodded distractedly before she caught a glimpse of long auburn hair. Spinning, Max went back outside. She caught one more glimpse of the girl as she got into her car.

Shaking her head, Max turned back to Logan's building, arguing with herself for a moment before she started up once again.

* * *

"Logan?" Max called as she walked into his apartment.

"Hey, Max." He came around the corner, glass in hand. She frowned at him.

"You've been drinking." She stated. He shrugged.

"You care?"

"Of course I care." She said, feeling guilty. "Logan, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're sorry." He said, raising his glass. "Maybe I should toast to the new couple." Her frown deepened.

"What?"

"I needed to talk to you, so I came by your apartment...and I saw him leaving." Max's eyes widened.

"You think…" She glared at him. "Logan, Alec got picked up for what Ben did. I busted him out of jail; he didn't have anywhere else to go." Logan stared at her.

"So, your not…I mean-"

"We're friends." She said firmly. At his relieved look, she sighed. "Logan, I can't change what I said. I still think that we should stay away from each other. I can't go through that again. Watching you almost die over and over because of me." She took a deep breath.

"But, something made me realize that I'm not ready to give up on you, not completely. That I want to find the cure for this, no matter what. I think…" She looked up at him. "I think we can find a way to beat this. I know we can. But until then…" Logan nodded, but she saw it in his eyes, the same thing that that dream, no matter if it was just a dream, gave her.

"I love you, Logan." She said it finally out loud. "Always will." And then she turned, and started out of his apartment. They weren't okay, not yet at least. But now her hope was restored that at least one day they would be. She was going to do whatever she could to make that happen, to make her dream real.


End file.
